Superman, Hitler and Trump

So, let’s try to make some sense out of the impeachment.

Why so late, you may ask. Well, I wanted to give everyone else a chance to say it all, and they did. 

The Left made it the last chance to save the country from a right-wing dictatorship. The Right made it the last chance to save our country - read that as its rapidly aging, rapidly shrinking white majority - from permanently losing control.

For the media - except for Fox of course - it was a horse race. Or a war game. Cover the strategy, count the votes, analyze how Brexit or conflicts in the Mideast will impact impeachment,

Not to make fun of that. Most of those stories were valid, and the speculation by experts told us some things we really should know, not that it will change things very much. Kind of like covering the forest and missing the trees.

So what do I think? Well, it will make some people mad, but I see a link between Donald Trump, Superman and Hitler. And, please, don’t think I am saying Donald Trump is Superman or Hitler, just their behavior is quite similar in one very important way.

Let’s start with Superman, and what his creators quickly saw as as a big problem.

Superman started out being faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings. And, at first, he fought crime and saved people from harm. Stopped muggers on the street, went into burning buildings to rescue children, stopped a speeding car that was about to smash into a crowd.

But, that was exciting for only so long. You can’t just keep having him stop bigger and bigger buses without people deciding not to buy the next copy. 

So, his deeds got bigger and better. He stopped bridges from collapsing and held up skyscrapers during an earthquake. In World War II, he fought the Nazis and the Japanese, although he never brought that war to an end.

After the war, he got stronger and faster. He was able to lift icebergs, throw errant nuclear missiles into the sun to explode harmlessly, and eventually fly so fast that time itself went backwards for him. That, of course, led to many other things - saving whole solar systems for a start.

The problems his writers created had to keep getting bigger and bigger. Until the only plot device left was to deal with self-doubts, character flaws and his unplanned negative impacts on others.

And Hitler? Well, he started small. The world was in an economic recession, still dealing with the losses caused by World War I. Germany was saddled with monumental debt, and people in their 20’s - who had nothing to do with World War I - didn’t see why they were paying for it.

Many of the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I were later modified, but not enough to keep Germany out of a deep recession. Today it is hard to find even the names of the people who signed the treaty for Germany, just the nickname they were given- the November Traitors.

Well, Hitler started small. He talked about how unfair outsiders were to Germany. Especially the Jewish traitors and the Communists inside Germany itself.  Groups formed - lots of angry young men who carried the National Socialist banner - and things got broken. Fires got started. People got beaten up. Jews especially, who Hitler shouted were not really Germans but a separate nationality. 

Trump last year signed an executive order declaring Jews to be a separate nationality too. It allowed hate crimes against Jews to fall under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on race, ethnicity and country or origin, but not religion. So, presto, Jews qualify for that protection.

What could go wrong with that? But does it mean Jews are not now Americans but a separate nationality, by executive order? 

Hitler came into power and started correcting long-perceived wrongs. There were jobs being created - good paying jobs - and little bits of other nations to take under German control. Not allowing Jews to work in most occupations helped. Seizing their businesses helped as well. For Hitler, it was a start.

Then he had whole nations to invade, with a powerful Nazi army and more powerful air force which - under the treaty that ended World War I - should not have existed. There were also treaties to be broken.

After the first treaty was ripped up and European nations didn’t actually do much about it, he kept going. Hitler effectively told the world that the treaties were stupid and wrong-headed document that should never have been signed.

And Germany got more powerful, getting lots of resources and slave labor from the nations he conquered. Growing and growing and committing more and more atrocities that the world protested but did nothing to stop. Until it couldn’t ignore it any longer.

The final result? 

Statistics vary, but globally 70 to 85 million people died as a result of World War II, 50 to 55 million of them civilians. More than half the dead were in the Republic of China and the Soviet Union.

The United States ended up spending $350 billion - twice as much as was spent in the entire history of the United States up to that time. In today’s dollars, it would be around $1.5 trillion.

United States casualties were just over 400,000 dead and 600,000 wounded.

Now, as for Donald Trump. Our President has, as far as I know, never had anyone say “no”to him. Well, yes, he fired some people who said that, but it didn’t cause him any great loss. Heck, he’s fired two wives.

He’s lost a lot of lawsuits, and closed a lot of businesses and even a charitable foundation. But, they were all separate corporations - it didn’t impact him personally.

Now, Donald Trump is running our government, and it seems that almost every elected Republican is lining up to support him. 

So, what’s the lesson of our ongoing national impeachment drama? Well, sooner or later everything ends. Lots of Republicans in the House of Representatives have already decided not to run for re-election. In October CNN put out a list of high-profile people who had left after he appointed them. I stopped counting at five dozen.

The lesson? Well, even if you’re as powerful as Superman or as threatening as Hitler, everything will come to an end sooner or later.

And, not always in a good way.